How old were you when diagnosed with SA?

[Phool]

Or mental health issues generally?

I was 31 when diagnosed with depression and later SA. I think it was too late, I had thought about getting help from age 25 but every time I suggested it to friends I kept being discouraged and told they would help me get through what was bothering me at the time. It took a major breakdown and ditching aforementioned friends for me to finally get help.

What was the point at which you sought help?

[Phool]

Could someone change "in old" to "how old" please. Stupid predictive text!

[Azi]

Originally Posted by Phool

Could someone change "in old" to "how old" please. Stupid predictive text!

Fixed!

I wasn't official diagnosed with SA - I told the doc what I thought was wrong and that was accepted.

I was diagnosed with depression in my mid to late teens, but I'm pretty sure I had pretty severe depression from the age of about 11 or 12. Mental health services for children are appalling - it's just not taken seriously enough.

[erase&rewind]

21/22 but I didn't start reading up about it until I was 28ish.

[Pinkelephant]

I was diagnosed 2 years ago aged 30 though I was told I had probably had it for years before that

[Only_human]

I never actually got diagnosed with sa. I was originally referred to psychologists due to certain issues of bullying that occured and OCD I had developed as a coping mechanism at the time so that tended to be the focus rather then my elements of my personality or other issues I might have generally in terms of my anxiety. I was 11 when I started seeing shrinks but I guess my anxities and reclusive tendencies started about 10 as well as my OCD. I think I was always a more introverted child though it just got progressively worse and isolating myself became increasingly more natural.

[Phool]

Originally Posted by Azi

Fixed!

I wasn't official diagnosed with SA - I told the doc what I thought was wrong and that was accepted.

I was diagnosed with depression in my mid to late teens, but I'm pretty sure I had pretty severe depression from the age of about 11 or 12. Mental health services for children are appalling - it's just not taken seriously enough.

Thanks Azi and sorry to hear about your experiences. I wonder if its because they think children will grow out of it that they don't take it as seriously.

[sslkirsty]

i was diagnosed with depression at 30 then sa at 34. I have just really started looking into what sa is over the last week, and cannot believe that they didnt diagnose me with this in my late teens, when i seen a clinical psychologist for some fears that I had.

I suppose the fact that i lied a bit and was in an abusive relationship might have masked it hee hee.

suppose they can only really help people and give a proper diagnosis when they have the full picture. Now that i'm a bit older i dont have a problem telling the doc how i feel etc...

[Phool]

Originally Posted by JaneM

So, when i did tell my doctor eventually he was fine about it, just told me like i was suffering from a cold or something and i remember feeling huge relief and the doctors have been a great help to me since then and i love them for it.

I remember feeling a huges sense of relief too.

[i_like_mittens]

I don't have any official diagnosis, but I went to therapy at 22 (does that count as 'official'?). My psychotherapist never mentioned social anxiety though which I thought was odd. I self diagnosed with SA at that time.

Instead he sort of labelled me with generalised anxiety, depression, OCD, agoraphobia, codependency and asperger's syndrome. I say 'sort of' because he didn't like labelling people and was a bit vague. I mentioned SA to him and he didn't deny it, but probably didn't want to fill my head with too many labels.

[firemonkey]

Never been officially dxed with SA but anxiety is one of my listed symptoms and had symptoms of SA since i was 13-14. . Was dxed with depression at nearly 17, schizophrenia at 18,schizoaffective at 26 and finally personality disorder NOS at 48.

[schneebeli]

I self-diagnosed at 26. Now 41.

[catlover]

I wasn't officially diagnosed with SA until a few years ago. However, my parents and I have known that I'm introverted, anxious, and moody since I was a child. They even sent me to a child psychiatrist for a little while, which didn't help at all.

[Mr Ploppy]

The doctors knew about my mental health issues since childhood, but it's only recently i've been getting any treatment. I've had SA, general to severe anxiety and depression for as long as I remember.

[moike]

Self diagnosed at about 30, didn't know the disorder existed before then

[GhostOnMagneticTape]

Self diagnosed and aware of SA at 25, I'm now 36.

Had it pretty much since around 8 years old.

[Effervescing Elephant]

I started having problems and becoming avoidant at about age 14. The only advice I got until age 19 was to "pull myself together". At Uni I got counselling and have had various treatments including group therapy, antidepressants, lithium and ECT most of the time since then.

It wasn't until I had a kind of breakdown at age 40 that I was handed an NHS guidebook about Social Anxiety.

Since then I've had CBT and psychotherapy

Gotta try 'em all

[black_mamba]

Never diagnosed by a doc. I saw a counsellor at age 12 because I was so depressed and stressy and anti-social, but he couldn't figure it out because I was totally mute around him because of my SA. Hehe!

I discovered the term 'social anxiety' when I was 19, self diagnosed and that was that.

[Pink*Lady]

I've never been diagnosed with SA but when I came across the symptoms that's when I realised I had SA. I've had SA and anxiety for as long as I can remember. I've also had recurring depression from around the age of 16.

[steve45]

I spent 15 years reading numerous books, watching tv, visiting my GP and there was no answer. Nothing quite fitted. Eventually google "told" me and my GP agreed and referred me. He was completely clueless of course but at least he understood that an intelligent person searching on google was in some respects more knowledgeable than him.

[sammmy]

I've never been diagnosed because i'm too afraid to see a doctor. But i've always kind of had it, at primary school I had no friends, at secondary school I had one or two, but I never saw them outside of school.

[Twoflower]

I was 12 years old, only diagnosed cos I was skipping school and some legal stuff meant I had to go to the doctors. Not that the diagnosis helped, doctors don't take SA seriously.

[incommunicado]

First diagnosed with 'social phobia' at the funny farm when twenty and several times since but was never told, although i never asked they could have explained. It was only a chance upside down glimpse of the heading of my psychiatric records being read by a doc that i searched on the internet in 2002 which threw up sa-uk. Been diagnosed several more times doing research and although they try and word things differently always conclude primarily social phobic.

[failquail]

Never been diagnosed with SA but thats mainly due to my aptitude at suppressing my emotions (sometimes i feel like a pressure cooker waiting to explode).

Probably does me no good in the long run, but i think i've got to the stage now that if i ever did let slip, i'd have so many people falling over themselves trying to help it terrifies me... Which makes me bottle it up even more...

Last year in the very least, i think i could have got help if i asked for it (online depression quizzes gave me big warnings plus anti-suicide helplines at the end!)
Amazes me so many on this forum seem to be able to ask their doctor about it... can't even imagine how i could do that!

[Lord Lucan]

I was 28. I knew something wasn't right years before then but didn't realise it had a name. My biggest regret is not figuring it out when I was younger.

[Zardo]

Originally Posted by Lord Lucan

I was 28. I knew something wasn't right years before then but didn't realise it had a name. My biggest regret is not figuring it out when I was younger.

This resonates with me, I was 28 when I finally heard of such a thing as social phobia and got diagnosed. I've had issues since I was in my pre-teens really, it's pathetic looking back how it's affected me.
It's depressing seeing the teens and early 20s sorting themselves out and getting in relationships ect also. Although I'm glad they know what is wrong, I wouldn't wish my life on anybody.

[Geoff]

I've never been diagnosed with SA. Part of having it is that I don't want to go where I need to go in order to get it diagnosed. It's pretty clear to me though that I have it. Although I don't actually think it's a thing you "have", it's more just something like a lack of confidence and self-believe, which in turn brings on the symptoms people think of as SA. I don't believe there is an actual illness that a third party can diagnose reliably. I certainly don't need any sort of specialist to ask me a load of questions and make some decision about what's happening in my own mind, when I'm far more qualified to diagnose myself than they are.

[Vanessa]

Originally Posted by Charlaine

I was diagnosed by the mental health team last year, after all these years! It was good to have it finally confirmed by someone else, even if only to stop myself from thinking that I was 'imagining' it

I think this is what I want to accomplish when I finally do get diagnosed with something. Right now I still have the idea in my head that I'm faking everything, and that upon seeking help I will be exposed as a fraud. Weird/complicated I know. That belief kept me from taking advantage of the free counselling at my uni over the nearly six years I was there. Even though I also know that something is truly wrong different about me.

I haven't been diagnosed with anything because of the reason above, and I have always been good enough at hiding things so growing up people (family, teachers, etc) just thought I was a quiet reserved person. So no one tried to help

[ßazza]

I think for me tbh I grew up with a life where I wasnt diagnosed as being dyslexic + various things which I wont bother going into, even though EVERYONE knew I was, due to funding reasons and not wanting to pay.

So living that type of life, which I wont go into, has led me to not giving a shit if im 'diagnosed' with this or that.

Its also not important to me to label myself in a way that disables me due to that labelling itself. However what I do think is important is I use a label as a way to either find information or seek help. People love labelling things and thus I use this label to seek help.

I would labelled diagnosed myself with g.a.d/s.a when I was 14-15 or something because thats when I found various sites and eventually sauk. I never had any g.p wtf diagnose me but then I have never 'required' a professional to tell me they know better than me when it comes to my body/mind. I simply know what I struggle with and use said labels to go over it. It be a bit like being 'diagnosed' when I brake a leg. I dont require someone to tell me its broken if I can see the bone sticking out. It wont make me feel any better or reassured. What made me feel better and reassured was simply discovering information and finding out that there others like me out there. Before that I had no answer or understanding and felt like a freak/broken.

-tldr-

Bout 14-15 I think by myself finding information.